Notes

Abstract:

Museums are popular forms of education and entertainment for people around the world.
They are beginning to incorporate more technology to display information and grab user
attention. I believe that the next step in this evolution will be a completely virtual museum.
Similar forms of media exist today but they are limited by constraints of time and technology. I
am developing a relatively quick and efficient way to create a 3D museum and incorporate it into
a videogame engine to make it user friendly and interactive. Users will be able to explore
existing or fictional museums similar to the way they would modern videogame environments.
This will serve as a digital database and an educational tool for many types of users.
This project requires the use of many different programs to accomplish its final goal.
First 3D models are created using Autodesk Maya, textures are made using Adobe Photoshop
and the final product is created in the game engine Unity. A major feature of my project is the
use of the Artec 3D Scanner to capture and display complex pieces of art without as much time
and effort traditional 3d models would take to create. The scanner is capable of recording both a
3 dimensional mesh as well as its texture, including processing time; it takes only a few hours to
scan and refine an object this way. Using these various techniques my virtual museum will have
a number of different artistic and historic pieces amongst its exhibits. Of these exhibits one will
be a collection of my personal work, and another will be comprised of sculptures captured with
the Artec Scanner.
Such a project has many different uses for a number of different people. Primarily it is
designed to be a library of objects that can be viewed and studied in an unconventional manner.
Making it useful for researchers that might not be able to access such works otherwise. This
would allow researchers the ability to communicate ideas and findings on similar objects within
their community. It can be used as an educational tool for children and other people that might
not be able to physically attend an actual museum. Developing it with game mechanics in mind
will make it more accepting and fun to younger audiences and they would engage in learning
without realizing. Movement is controlled using a mouse and “W”,”S”, “A”, and “D” keys just
like any First Person Shooter (FPS) game for the PC. Game inspired controls would be very
intuitive for the younger audience, but not as much for professionals using it for as a research
tool. A database function would be needed to make it easy to view and access various assets.
Various game elements makes this project more intuitive to users and plays on the strengths of
such mechanics to make it a stronger educational tool.
Developing digital libraries of artistic and historic pieces is a good way to preserve the
artifacts as well as make them available for study to a large audience. This process would be
valuable for a wide variety of people. As technology continues to progress the process of
digitizing assets will become easier and more common. Artifacts can be scanned and uploaded
by many different people which would grow the database and be beneficent for all users. This
system has the potential for many different applications but its primary goal is to make these
digital works available for research and educational use.